Morbid Fact Du Jour for December 25, 2013

Today’s Well-Tanned Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

By now everybody who hasn’t been living under a rock knows that over-tanning leads to prematurely aged skin and skin cancer. Tanning beds are a particularly unhealthy form of tanning. Over the years there have been numerous urban legends about people who have supposedly cooked themselves to death in a tanning bed. But putting skin-cancer deaths aside, there has only been one known case of a person dying as a direct and immediate result of the use of a tanning bed.

On May 13, 1989, Patsy Campbell of Portage, Indiana, spent 25 minutes in a tanning bed. She was a victim of psoriasis and was taking Psoralen, which increases the skin’s sensitivity to ultraviolet light; psoriasis often responds well to UV rays. However, great care must be taken when Psoralen is being used because the skin is very susceptible to being burned. Shortly after her tanning session ended, Patsy Campbell began to itch all over and blisters began to appear. She was burned over 70-80 percent of her body and died 11 days later.

Culled from: Wikipedia
Submitted by: Aimee

2 comments

  1. Mrs. Campbell was my Mother. Your comment about “her not knowing about too much of a good thing” is disrespectful, offensive and most of all, inaccurate! She had never used a tanning bed in her life and was only doing so this one and only time under the direction of her doctor. Please note that this was proven to be malpractice. A revision of this article would be appreciated!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *